Recent years have seen increasing numbers of households equipped with solar cells or like electric power generators for environmental and long-term economic reasons. The electric power generated by the generator is transmitted to an electric power company to cancel out the power consumed by the household. Two watt-hour meters are often used, one to measure the power consumption by the household and another to measure the power generated by the generator installed in the household. Most electric power generators are expensive and difficult for a household to pay off the cost unless it is used for a long time.
If the generator breaks down, and it is not found quickly, the generator stops operation during that period, failing to generate power which could be bought by the electric power company. The breakdown of the generator is not the only problem; an extra time is required to repay the cost of the expensive generator. Resultant financial loss may be serious.
To monitor the generator for a breakdown, published unexamined patent application 2002-289883 (Tokukai 2002-289883; published on Oct. 4, 2002) among others proposes a solar panel diagnostic system where panel-type power generating facilities are connected to the Internet, and a weather data server is connected to a diagnostic server which is determining means in the system.
The diagnostic server collects data on the quantity of power generated and transmitted from each panel-type power generating facility on a daily basis. The server also collects weather data from the weather data server. The diagnostic server monitors the solar panels in the panel-type power generating facilities by means of the collected power generation and weather data. Any abnormality detected is reported via the Internet to the home gateway for the panel-type power generating facility.